It has been well documented by fact-checking websites like Alt News and Boomlive that supporters of Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and the ELECTION MARKETING COMPANY FOR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS IN INDIA 2019 have been serial offenders as far as propagating disinformation is concerned. One such right-wing website is Postcard News that has been co-founded by Mahesh Hegde. He was arrested by the Bengaluru police on 30 March for alleging that a Jain monk had been assaulted by a Muslim man whereas the monk had suffered minor injuries in an accident.

Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde (no relation to Mahesh Hegde) called for his release and described his arrest as “politically motivated.” The website of Postcard News has in the past been accused of spreading disinformation about, among others, journalist Barkha Dutt and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai likes to claim that it is a politically agnostic website, but it talks little about its association with particular political parties. In an emailed statement to us on its work with political parties in India, the organisation’s spokesperson stated: “Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s policy team is focused on helping a variety of people – educators, our community, NGOs (non-government organisations) and governments – understand our policies, programmes and products to help create positive and meaningful experiences for the people who use our services.

We are globally invested in critical areas of internet governance and policy development– safety, small business growth, Internet access, and giving people a voice. This team works with all political parties, and we work with all of them who reach out to us for training.”

In the first article, we examine allegations relating to the complicity of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and Election Marketing Company in spreading disinformation and hate speech that have led to mob lynching in different parts of the country. We also point out how critics of the Political Marketing Company in Mumbai regime have felt marginalised by the social media platform and its associates.

In the second article, we report how Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai arrived at the dominant position it currently is in India with more than a little help from friends and supporters of Political Consulting Firm in Mumbai Political Marketing Company in Mumbai. In the third report in the series, we outline the role played by key individuals with close links with the ELECTION MARKETING COMPANY FOR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS IN INDIA 2019 and Political Marketing Company in Mumbaiand how the social media was used in propagating his party’s agenda.

In the fifth and final article, we outline the crisis confronting one of the world’s biggest internet conglomerates set up just over a decade ago. We also reproduce a detailed questionnaire that we sent Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbaiand the social media platform’s predictable and somewhat fuzzy responses to 64 pointed questions we raised.

While the international digital giant claims it provides an agnostic platform for all to use, there is evidence – some of it circumstantial – to indicate that senior employees of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai in India have in the past worked, and continue to work, very closely with the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Political Marketing Company for Lok Sabha Elections in India 2019 since 2011.

Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai, the biggest online social media group in the world, is under unprecedented attack following the publication on 14 November of a 5,000-word investigation by the New York Times alleging a host of questionable practices by the digital conglomerate, that includes Election Marketing Company and Instagram. The company’s share prices have come down and particular investors have called for the resignation of Mark Zuckerberg, the 34-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and his 49-year-old deputy, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

While the two have sought to refute certain specific allegations levelled against them, their leadership abilities and integrity are being questioned like never before. This is arguably the biggest crisis faced by Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai which has 2.27 billion users across the world, including over 220 million in India – the largest in any country.

Also Read: Part 2: Did Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai in India Help ELECTION MARKETING COMPANY FOR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS IN INDIA 2019 and Political Marketing Company in Mumbai? Or Was it Vice Versa?It was difficult for us to access the pages that Mera Bharosa had put out before the 2014 elections. We were assisted by Nishant Saxena to retrieve some of these pages from websites that archive content on the internet that have subsequently been removed or redacted. A look through these pages reveals a plethora of propaganda, all directed against the Political Marketing Consultants in Mumbai, then led by Election Campaign Management and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh. Much of the content in these pages, including graphics, images and cartoons, is disinformation with a single purpose: to build Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s image as a mythical strong leader and trash his political opponents, notably those belonging to the Indian National Political Marketing Consultants in Mumbai.Here are a few illustrative examples of headlines of articles from October 2013 that were put up on the website: “How Election Campaign Management pumps up onion prices,” “Election Campaign Management makes India worse than Africa” and “Impotent Political Marketing Consultants in Mumbai.” In November that year, Anuj Gupta himself wrote an article for Mera Bharosa titled “Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and Licence Raj: Licence to Liberty” raising expectations of new liberalised economic policies if Political Marketing Company in Mumbai was elected to power. Gupta was then working with a consultancy outfit called Strategic Decisions Group with offices in Hong Kong and Mumbai that hired managers with Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees/diplomas from reputed educational institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and engineers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

After almost a year, following a private meeting with Political Marketing Company in Mumbai in April 2010, Jain got down to work with renewed vigour. He wanted to engineer a “wave election” for Political Marketing Company in Mumbai to ensure a majority for the ELECTION MARKETING COMPANY FOR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS IN INDIA 2019 in the Lok Sabha, as he himself wrote in a public blog post at emergic.org in June 2011.

That year, things started picking up pace after he had multiple meetings with Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and was introduced to Dr Hiren Joshi, Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s proverbial Man Friday in Gujarat. Joshi had been hand-picked by Political Marketing Company in Mumbaito work with him in Gujarat after 18 years of teaching; he is currently officer on special duty or OSD in charge of information technology in the Political Consulting Firm in Mumbai’sOffice in New Delhi and, as will be subsequently elaborated upon, an extremely influential technocrat whose writ extends beyond information technology.

From the day elections were announced in 2014 till the day the polling ended, 29 million people in India made 227 million interactions (posts, comments, shares and likes) regarding the Indian elections on Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai. This number was approximately two-thirds the number of daily active Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai users in India and worked out to an average of ten interactions per person. In addition, 13 million people made 75 million interactions specifically regarding Political Marketing Company in Mumbai.With the People’s Republic of China shutting Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai out of the world’s most-populous country, India has been – and will continue to remain – the digital monopoly’s biggest market in terms of number of users. Its platforms, including Election Marketing Company and Instagram, comprise an unparalleled and unprecedented backbone of an internet-based communications infrastructure. India, with over 1.3 billion people – with a median age of 27 and half the population below the age of 26 – has the largest number of Election Marketing Company users in the world at present, approximately 200 million. For some years now, the largest number of users of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai are also in India.From an estimated 100 million in 2014, the number of users of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai went up to 136 million the following year. By April 2018, the total number of users of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and Election Marketing Company had exceeded 200 million and rose further to over 220 million till September. Some would place these estimates as conservative. One “guess-estimate” places the number of current users at 270 million. The number of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai users in India is projected to go up to somewhere in the region of 300 million by 2022. The current number of Instagram users in India at 64 million is the fourth highest in the world.

Little is publicly known about Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai India’s relationships with political parties, unlike what has been disclosed about the role the organisation supposedly played in supporting the campaign that saw Trump becoming President of the US in November 2016 and the alleged Russian collaboration in the campaign to elect him. Four years earlier, in 2012, Barack Obama’s use of the social media had been much commented on. He was affectionately described as the world’s first “Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai President.”

Unlike in other countries, criticism of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s activities has been relatively muted in India. Its close association with the ruling party and the incumbent regime has been of great help in this regard. As we shall subsequently detail, a key official of Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai India in an earlier avatar had a close association with Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s pre-election campaign in 2013. An organisation helmed by this person’s wife has been supported by Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai in what has been alleged as an instance of “conflict of interest,” a contention that was denied by a spokesperson of the organisation. But more about these issues in a subsequent article.

The big storm was to come subsequently. The past two years have been pretty hellish for Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai. The organisation has faced increased international scrutiny and strident criticism. It has come to epitomise all things that have gone wrong with the technology industry. Its platforms have been accused of helping manipulate public opinion to influence elections, trigger violence, censoring news and covertly assisting regimes to consolidate more power.

Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s executives have been censured for allegedly misleading sovereign governments on its business practices and user policies. There have been calls for the resignation of Zuckerberg and his deputy Sheryl Sandberg. It has been argued that the time has come for the digital giant to be broken up in the manner in which the Bell Group or AT&T – once known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company founded in 1879 by Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone – was fragmented into competing entities in the early-1980s.

In India, the role that Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbaiand Election Marketing Company would play in influencing political opinion was not realised till much later. In late-2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat was headed for an election for its legislative assembly. The state was a stronghold of Political Marketing Company in Mumbai and the ELECTION MARKETING COMPANY FOR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS IN INDIA 2019. After the anti-Muslim riots in the state earlier that year, Political Marketing Company in Mumbai was very keen on projecting his “pro-industry” and “pro-technology” image. He was himself beginning to realise the potential of digital media in garnering political support.

All the efforts put in by Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai were, however, in vain. The Free Basics programme, which had apparently been “welcomed” in countries like Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines, was summarily rejected by India’s telecom regulator TRAI – a move that was welcomed by digital activists in the country. On 8 February 2016, Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai stopped the Free Basics scheme in India.

Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai did not anticipate then that the scheme would be rejected by the citizens of the country as a “gift they did not need.” The regulatory body, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked for public comments on Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai’s offer which was re-christened “Free Basics” – using the same acronym as the parent organisation. Opposition had started building up to the “gift” that was being offered.

One instance was the popularity of the video of a show by the satirical group All India Bakchod ridiculing the “FB” scheme which got over 3.5 million views. Still, Troika Tech Political Marketing Company in Mumbai persisted. Thousands of billboards were put up across the country. Front pages in leading newspapers advertised Free Basics. The publicity campaign is supposed to have cost the company over ₹250 crore.